


Experimenting in Investigative Teamwork

by WhiteHotBlueFlame



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Clones, F/F, Science, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 17:39:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5549465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteHotBlueFlame/pseuds/WhiteHotBlueFlame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carmilla’s mother had always been distant, it occasionally edged on cold. But, after twenty odd years of life, she was almost accustomed to it. She knew she was adopted; there was nothing of her mother in her and nothing of her in her mother. But anytime Carmilla asks about her parents, her mother stonewalls. What is she hiding? Can Carmilla and her favorite investigative Youtube star figure it out?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Experimenting in Investigative Teamwork

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to let me know what you think. Also, I'm incredibly human, I tried to proof like a machine but it doesn't always work, feel free to let me know if you spot mistakes. Hope you enjoy the story. (Cross posted on Santasgotasecret.tumblr.com)

Carmilla’s mother had always been distant, it occasionally edged on cold. But, after twenty odd years of life, she was almost accustomed to it. She lived her life wanting for nothing, but the affection she saw between her peers and their parents. She knew she was adopted, there was nothing of her mother in her and nothing of her in her mother; it had been obvious from the time she was young that they weren’t related by blood. They even had different last names which had, for all intents and purposes, sealed the truth of the matter for Carmilla. Carmilla had brought it up when she was old enough to put thought into the question. The response was the same every time she asked, “Why is it so important, sweetheart?” The endearment rolling off of her tongue as an afterthought laced with edges of clinical sarcasm. “You’re my glittering girl, my diamond. They were nothing and continue to be such.” 

Carmilla retreated in on herself, getting lost in books and occasionally the internet. She spent her internet time talking to, befriending, emailing, her favorite investigative YouTuber, Laura Hollis. When it came time for her to leave the house for university, she could barely contain the excitement she felt getting away from the empty feel of her mother’s house. However, she realized then, there would be no escaping her mother’s thumb, her mother, who had been a genetics professor at the university was now the dean of the university. Over Carmilla’s first year of university, Laura had blown up into something of an internet star. By that time, they had talked about Laura’s parents, Laura had lost her mother but was close with her father, about their interests, about anything and everything except Carmilla’s parents. They were best friends, although only over the internet. 

Carmilla was especially excited when their conversation turned to university. Laura knew Carmilla was in her second year of university at Silas. Laura had talked about giving up her dreams of being an investigative journalist since she’d found internet fame, but over the past few months, she had decided to attend Silas, at the very least, to have a backup plan. Carmilla was excited as she submitted the housing request a week into the new semester. They’d never spoke in person, but this could be a good start, and maybe Laura would help her find out about her parents. 

Laura had been at the university for almost a month, posting her videos from her dorm room, around her class schedule. Her rigorous updating schedule undeterred by the demanding class schedule she’d opted for. Her roommate had griped and complained, and apparently when she’d claimed she’d had enough, she wasn’t kidding because when Laura returned from class a few days later the bed had been stripped and the majority of the clothes on that side of the room had been cleared out. Laura sighed, she should have seen this coming. A few hours later, she sat focused on the video she was editing when the door opened with a loud creak and slam, drawing her attention from the desk in front of her. In walked a girl dressed in formfitting black leather pants, a tight black band shirt and a devilish smirk. “Who the hell are you?” Laura’s eyes traveled over her face, carved of marble, frozen into a cool smirk, all angles and eyeliner, Laura couldn’t control her gaze, rapt as she was by the onyx angel, or maybe demon who stood before her. Her eyes landed on the girl’s dark chocolate liqueur colored eyes, scrutinizing, Laura felt immediate familiarity that she couldn’t place.

Carmilla’s smirk grew wider at Laura’s attention. “Carmilla. I’m your new roommate, sweetheart.” Laura’s face scrunched, her mind recognized that name. Before she knew it, she could place the familiarity that was radiating off the girl. A smile climbed over Laura’s features. 

“Finally.” Carmilla was taken aback by the response. Her eyes roaming over the face she’d, until now, only seen on a computer screen. The caramel eyes she’d grown familiar with over the internet clearly held more depth than she’d ever seen, they were amber with green and golden flecks. Her eyes traveled from her honey and mahogany toned hair down her face, over each freckle, to pink lips which were pulled into a grin. “I’ve been here for a month, and we’ve still only been texting and emailing. I was starting to think you were a lying 50 year old man.” Carmilla laughed as the smile grew wider on Laura’s face.

“Nope, cutie. I’m just me. Though a bit insulted by the idea that I said anything that would make you think 50 year old man. I know I’m a philosophy major but really? What could’ve made you think 50 year old, and man no less?” Carmilla’s lips pulled into a flat line as Laura’s face scrunched. 

Laura had never prodded about Carmilla’s parents, she didn’t feel it was her place, she might have been a nosy YouTuber (she had been called that more than once when she was investigating something), but she understood boundaries. She wasn’t sure she should mention it in her response. But, before she knew it she was rambling out a response. “Well. I mean. You never talk about your parents. Ever. Not once. You have this way of speaking, like you’re bored with the world, and you’re so over everything in it. It’s pretty broody and cynical. I mean I’m reading it in text so inflection is harder to understand. So I could be wrong. But. I mean. You have this older syntax. And sometimes you talk like you’re 300 years old. Not 20. I mean. I did look for info on you. I mean, really, it’s what I do. I couldn’t find much. Not even a picture. It was mysterious and intriguing. My father had a field day with it as you can imagine.” Carmilla had dropped her stuff just inside the door, and moved to sit on the bed next to Laura at her desk, listening to the girl ramble. Laura’s hands flew as she talked, gestures grand and small kept Carmilla captivated by the girl whose face was turning bright red as she continued. “And you know how protective he is and I –” Carmilla smirked before bringing a hand up to stop Laura, finally putting her out of her blathering misery.

“Cutie. Stop. Breathe. I’m actually impressed because I’m pretty sure you did that whole thing without taking a single breath. That is solid dedication to a nervous ramble.” Laura took an audible breath, her eyes dropping, as her hands did, to her lap. “My syntax is the product of tutors and having had to learn different languages growing up. The cynicism is probably a product of my home life. Which brings us to my parents. I don’t know anything about them.” Laura couldn’t control the gasp that came from her. Her lips tilted downward and eyes filled with shame. She moved to open her mouth before Carmilla stopped her by continuing. “I was adopted. I know my mother. But I’m not related to her and we don’t have the best relationship.” It was Carmilla’s turn to avert her eyes. She never shared this information with anyone. Ever. There was just something about this girl. Laura made her want to divulge everything. “She treats me like some sort of science project. It’s frustrating.” Laura nodded glumly, her eyes meandering over Carmilla’s features pulled tight with tension. 

“Uh. Why don’t you know anything about your parents?” Laura’s voice was soft, soothing but edged in curiosity. “I mean. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Laura placed her hand over one of Carmilla’s while the other hand fell to Carmilla’s knee. 

Carmilla’s face softened at Laura’s gesture. “My mother, she won’t tell me anything about them. I’ve asked until I just gave up asking, she was never willing to disclose anything about them.” Laura’s thumb shifted gently, soothingly rubbing against Carmilla’s hand while the other thumb moved in circled over Carmilla’s knee. 

“So you don’t even have their names?” Carmilla shook her head lightly. 

“I’ve tried searching birth records for when I was born, and then going from there, but not one of those records lead anywhere useful. I really don’t have anything. And nowhere to start.” 

Laura’s brow furrowed at Carmilla’s words. Carmilla watched Laura’s face, seeing as ideas entered and then were quickly shot down behind her eyes. “You don’t have nothing.” Laura’s smile turned more into a scheming smirk. “You have your mother.”

Carmilla shook her head. “I’ve already asked. She won’t ever tell me anything.” 

Her eyes watched as Laura’s posture changed. She was assuming her internet posture, her ‘I’m going to look into it and get back to you’ face was affixed to her features. Carmilla sighed, noticing with a soft smile she hadn’t even had to ask for help. Laura would let no mystery go unsolved. “Yes. I get that she won’t tell you anything.” Laura’s hands flying again as she talked with her hands a bit. “But, she has to have some place she keeps important documents, right? I mean everyone has a place to keep birth certificates and insurance crap. Things like that.” 

Carmilla sighed and shook her head again. “I mean I’m sure she does, but I’m not going to ask her about it. That’s surely a way to end up with her using my eyeballs as martini olives.” As Laura opened her mouth to argue, Carmilla stopped her. “I’m not the only one who is terrified of my mother. She’s sort of got this whole school wrapped about her pinky.” Carmilla shrugged when Laura face turned questioning. “She’s the dean.”

Laura snorted, her mind creating a mental image of the description. “Ugh. Your mother is the dean?” Carmilla chuckled at the high pitch of Laura’s voice, nodding. “Of this university?” Laura’s pitch could have brought in dogs. Carmilla nodded again solemnly. “Well, I guess I don’t blame you for not wanting to ask her anything. She’s a bit terrifying.” Carmilla snorted lightly. “Ok. Fine. A lot terrifying. But, no one said you had to ask her anything.” Laura’s face was back to wearing a scheming smirk that Carmilla was beginning to know, and fear. “You know her schedule, right?” Carmilla nodded questioningly. “Then we, uh, for lack of a better term, ransack her files. I mean you live with her so you have every right to go home. So we just go when she’s not there. And try to be careful about where everything is.” Laura shrugged like it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Correction, cutie. I live with you.” Carmilla winked, watching a blush light over Laura’s face as her eyes flicked to Laura’s lips. “Ok. Cutie. If we go through with this plan of yours, you’re going to have to cut some classes. Can you do that?” Laura nodded eagerly, her eyes alight with excitement. 

A few days later, Carmilla was standing on the front stoop, unlocking the front door of her mother’s house. Laura was behind her, prattling on about how useful the chore wheel she’d created could be if they both just followed it. Carmilla laughed lightly, leading to a quiet harrumph from Laura before a change of subject. 

“We should have asked Perry to help us with this.” Carmilla’s eyes met Laura’s in disbelief. She raised an eyebrow without a word. “Ok, that was a goofy idea.” Laura conceded with a grin. Carmilla turned and lead Laura into the house. “But, LaF would have helped. I’m sure they would have been totally down for some breaking and entering.” Laura chuckled softly before her attention was drawn to the room around her. She felt like she’d stepped backwards in time, the air drawn from her lungs. The décor was as intimidating as the dean herself, the room was decorated in sharp tones and antiques. 

Carmilla nodded; her back turned to Laura as she led further into the house. “Yeah, the mad scientist would have been a great addition to our team for this.” Her words held a bit of sarcasm, but she wasn’t above conceding that LaFontaine would have been useful, especially with their love of science, in sorting through her mother’s files once they found them. “Maybe I just didn’t feel like sharing you, cupcake.” Carmilla glanced over her shoulder with a wink at Laura who couldn’t control the blush as it climbed across her face. Carmilla pulled open a door to a room decorated in dark toned woods, bookshelves and cabinets, a dark wood desk stood in the middle drawing attention the second they were in the room. “Ok, cutie, if she has files like the ones we discussed, they’d have to be in here. So let’s spread out. Try to put things back where you found them.” Laura nodded, grabbing Carmilla’s hand quickly, giving her fingers a soft squeeze. 

The two of them moved around the room opening cabinets along the walls, rifling through papers as they went. Laura was the first to speak. “You didn’t tell me your mother was a geneticist.” Carmilla nodded without a word as she moved her hands through a box of files in front of her. “Did you know she was into cloning?” Laura’s question drew Carmilla away from the box in front of her. Carmilla walked up behind Laura slowly, her chin resting on Laura’s shoulder to see the article in Laura’s hand. Laura’s breath caught in her throat at Carmilla’s closeness. ‘Scientist Believes Human Cloning Mere Years Away.’ Carmilla’s brow furrowed as she read the article; it was dated less than a decade before she was born. Somehow the journalist had managed to call her very terrifying mother a crazy person in a professional setting. Carmilla was mildly impressed. She looked at Laura quickly, her cheeks red, her breathing shallow. 

“I wonder how long that journalist kept their job before my mother tore them a new one.” Laura and Carmilla laughed lightly, feeling loud in the quiet room. Carmilla stepped away from Laura, instantly feeling cooler where Laura’s back had been radiating heat against her. Carmilla went back to the box she had been going through, her thoughts stuck on the article. 

They worked in silence for another few hours. “I thought you said your name was Carmilla.” Carmilla nodded without looking up. “Ok then. Jeez, talk about a resemblance.” That comment pulled Carmilla out of her focus.

“What do you mean, cupcake?” Carmilla walked over to where Laura was standing again resting her chin on Laura’s shoulder to see the paper in her hand. There on the paper in Laura’s hand was another article, the top of which held a picture. The picture looked exactly like Carmilla. The girl dressed in a pleated plaid skirt and white dress shirt was the antithesis of Carmilla’s style, but the rest looked exactly like her. ‘Mircalla von Karnstein Wins National Prize.’ 

“It’s, like, you. But not. In so many ways. So very not you.” Laura turned her head to look at Carmilla, noticing how close they were in that moment. “Maybe she was your mother.” Laura’s voice dropped to a reverent whisper. “I mean the Karnstein part and, of course, the looks. She’s just as gorgeous as you. I mean wow. Though clearly you didn’t inherit anything from your father, because you are, like, the spitting image of her.” Laura pointed to the photo in her hand. Carmilla swallowed audibly, her eyes transfixed to the article in Laura’s hand. “Hey Carm?” Carmilla eyes snapped up, she turned, looking at Laura, only inches between their faces. “You ok?” Carmilla stepped back with a nod, putting space between her and Laura, taking the article gently from Laura’s hand and moving to plop into the desk chair nearby. 

Laura turned back to the files she had been going through, watching Carmilla’s reaction out of the corner of her eye. Silence seemed to be what Carmilla needed in that moment so Laura took a deep breath and started shuffling through the files again. Only a minute passed before Laura found another article. “I thought you said you were 20?” Laura’s voice held confusion and skepticism. Carmilla’s eyes roamed over Laura’s bunched features. 

“I am, cupcake. You know that. Why?” Laura was silent for a moment, her eyes transfixed on the faded newspaper clipping in her hand. “I assume that very odd question has something to do with what you’re holding.” Carmilla’s voice was almost in Laura’s ear as she set her chin once again on Laura’s shoulder. Laura shuddered at the warm breath stirring the air past her ear, drawing her out of her focus. Laura turned her head to find Carmilla staring intently, face filled with confusion, at the obituary in her hand. ‘Mircalla von Karnstein Lost in Fiery Car Accident’ Carmilla sighed, her eyes drifting over the article. It was dated two years before her birth. “She can’t be my mother then.” Carmilla’s voice had dropped, speaking in hushed tones laced with bewilderment and pain. “I guess we’re back to square one, huh, cupcake.”

Carmilla turned away from Laura, returning to the chair she’d come from. The picture of Mircalla von Karnstein still held in her hand. “I don’t know, Carm. There’s no way you’re not related to the girl in that picture. Absolutely no way. You two could be twins. If there weren’t like 30 some odd years of age difference between you. Something weird is going on here.”

Carmilla sighed, her voice rasping and gravelly. “What are you trying to say, cupcake?” Carmilla’s eyes were leveled at Laura. Laura felt like Carmilla’s eyes were boring into her soul as she floundered with her answer. 

“I – I – I don’t know. I mean first the human cloning thing. Then the picture of Mircalla. She’s practically your twin.” Laura’s eyes dropped to the article in front of her before returning to Carmilla with an eyebrow quirked. 

“Laura. No.” Laura’s eyes were apologetic. “She would know better than me the risks associated with human cloning, but it’s not only illegal, but dangerous. Cloning can have disastrous effects, cancer, premature aging, all sorts of really bad things. She might be cold, but I don’t think she’d toy with anyone’s health or freedom like that.” Carmilla’s eyes were narrowed, lips pulled into a straight line, but her mind was spinning. She felt like she was losing her grip. “You know what. We should have never come looking in here. We need to put everything away. We need to go. Now.” Carmilla’s voice was harsh and final. Laura quickly tucked the obituary into her pocket before putting the files back in order and putting them away while Carmilla did the same to her files. 

Laura sat at her computer, wanting to work but unable to focus. Her mind kept traveling back to Mircalla von Karnstein. She’d done a few searches finding that Mircalla was a genetics prodigy, a writer, and artist. She was impressive on paper. Laura’s mind couldn’t begin to focus on the editing she had planned to do. She stared at the computer screen, regularly waking the computer after the screensaver took over the screen as she waited for Carmilla to return. Hours passed, Laura began to worry Carmilla wouldn’t return; she stared to worry about where Carmilla might’ve disappeared to. Right as Laura grabbed her cellphone to send yet another text or make another call to Carmilla, the door swung open loudly and Carmilla walked through. Her shoulders slumped, her head hung. She flung herself onto her bed, wordlessly. Laura could see her face, pulled tight, tension taking over the line of her jaw, her eyebrows set and frustration and uncertainty.

Laura walked over, sitting herself on the edge of Carmilla’s bed, leaving a little room between them. “Hey.” Laura’s words were soft, a gentle caress on Carmilla’s doubt addled mind.

“Hey.” Laura’s eyes lighted slightly at the sound of Carmilla’s smoky voice. 

“Carm, are you ok?” The concern lacing Laura’s voice was enough to break Carmilla’s silence. She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk, but she might’ve needed to. Or maybe that was just the effect Laura had on her. 

“I couldn’t ignore what you said. I wanted to. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t true. I mean. You’re a child. You don’t know anything.” Laura’s eyes dropped, darkness filling them, the smile fell from her face, before Carmilla sat up, reaching out to take her hand. “But. I couldn’t ignore it. And you’re not dumb. You put two and two together. All I wanted to do was to tear the thought out. I couldn’t so I went to my mother. I asked.” Laura’s fingers tightened reassuringly around Carmilla’s. “She told me I didn’t have the brains for it. I am merely a disappointment. She expected to have replicated Mircalla’s abilities, her prodigy status. I’m her glittering girl, mainly because I’m an achievement. In science. I’m a clone.” 

Carmilla’s eyes rested on the hand holding her own. “Who am I? I don’t even know Mircalla and I’m pissed at her. But, then I’m just mad at myself. I mean, same genes, same DNA. I have no identity. I’m someone I’ve never met. We’re the same. There’s no difference.” Laura shook her head gently, watching Carmilla’s philosophical and oddly scientific debate.

She slid closer to Carmilla, her knee touching Carmilla’s thigh as she turned. “There is a difference. A big difference. You’re you. I don’t know or like Mircalla. But, I know and I like you.” Laura’s face lit with a soft smirk as she leaned forward. “And I can comfortably say I would never do this with Mircalla.” Laura’s hand skimmed up Carmilla’s arm before settling on her cheek and wrapping into her hair. Laura moved forward waiting for Carmilla to acquiesce to her motions. Carmilla leaned forward nodding calmly. Laura closed the distance with a sigh, their lips meeting and taking over one another. Laura pulled back, her head rested against Carmilla’s. “I’m so glad you’re Carmilla.” Carmilla chuckled softly against Laura’s lips before pulling her in for another kiss.


End file.
